We’re here for your rawest, most painfully honest stories — so let us tell you ours.
Barefaced Stories started in 2010 by best mates Andrea Gibbs and Kerry O’Sullivan, two comedians who believed their stories weren’t the ones that needed to be heard on stage. Frustrated by the lack of any good storytelling opportunities in Australia (and there’s only so much you can do in a standup set), Andrea and Kerry wanted more. And so, after a heap of storytelling workshops, mentoring from storytelling coaches in the USA, a lot of late nights, and enough drinks at The Bird, Barefaced Stories was born.
Their theory: we provide the room and the mic, the people of Perth will bring the tales. They were right.
We’ve grown a bit since 2010. Today we’re Australia’s leading live storytelling event, and Perth’s only regular storytelling night.
Barefaced Stories continues to punch above its weight, harvesting a line up from an international, national and local talent pool – surgeons and stay-at-home mums, alongside dilettantes and deviants – all living proof that stories are who we are and they are what’s left of us when we go.
Sometimes confessional, rarely pulpit, always surprising – guaranteed brutally frank.
With an audience and community as keen to participate as to watch, regular workshops are held for those looking to make the leap from audience to stage (be it at The Bird or the boardroom), with gentle coaching through gestation and delivery of a spellbinding story. Our storytelling workshops help you find the stories you want to share, teach you how to craft them, and give you the tools to tell your story yourself. We’ve even got a podcast, so you can listen to your fav stories again and again, or even introduce us to your Mum.
Our monthly live shows attract storytellers from all over Australia. WA locals, interstate visitors, and international guests; from bus drivers to accountants, comedians to surgeons.
Armed only with their true-life tales, each storyteller takes to the stage, strips it all back and wears their bloody, beating heart on their sleeve. We celebrate those stories that surrender to the chaos of being human, that make you weep, or laugh until you p*e yourself a little. These are stories with nothing to hide.
At its heart, Barefaced Stories curates and cultivates stories that are fresh, authentic, and fearless. It’s a chance to elevate voices that might not easily find a microphone. It’s a space where nothing’s sacred, but everyone’s treated with respect. And quite frankly—it’s the bomb.
If the mainstage is rehearsed, flawless and shiny, Barefaced is raw, honest and unpredictable, while the theme of the night is open to interpretation, the stories are a love song to the human condition.
It’s refreshingly honest, bold, and brutally frank storytelling, from real people.
